Face searching and detection in a digital image acquisition device

ABSTRACT

A method of detecting a face in an image includes performing face detection within a first window of the image at a first location. A confidence level is obtained from the face detection indicating a probability of the image including a face at or in the vicinity of the first location. Face detection is then performed within a second window at a second location, wherein the second location is determined based on the confidence level.

BENEFIT CLAIM

This application claims the benefit and priority under 35 U.S.C. §120 asa Continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/177,212 filed Feb.10, 2014, which claims priority to continuation of Ser. No. 12/374,040(now U.S. Pat. No. 8,649,604), titled “Face Searching and Detection in ADigital Image Acquisition Device,” filed Jun. 28, 2010, which claims thebenefit and priority of PCT Application Serial No. PCT/EP2007/006540,filed Jul. 23, 2007, which claims priority to U.S. ProvisionalApplication Ser. No. 60/892,883, filed Mar. 5, 2007. The contents of allof these documents are incorporated herein by reference, as if fully setforth herein. The applicants hereby rescind any disclaimer of claimscope in the parent application or the prosecution history thereof andadvise the USPTO that the claims in this application may be broader thanany claim in the parent applications.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides an improved method and apparatus forimage processing in digital image acquisition devices. In particular theinvention provides improved performance and accuracy of face searchingand detection in a digital image acquisition device.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Several applications such as US published application no. 2002/0102024to inventors Jones and Viola relate to fast-face detection in digitalimages and describe certain algorithms. Jones and Viola describe analgorithm that is based on a cascade of increasingly refined rectangularclassifiers that are applied to a detection window within an acquiredimage. Generally, if all classifiers are satisfied, a face is deemed tohave been detected, whereas as soon as one classifier fails, the windowis determined not to contain a face.

An alternative technique for face detection is described by Froba, B.,Ernst, A., “Face detection with the modified census transform”, inProceedings of 6^(th) IEEE Intl. Conf. on Automatic Face and GestureRecognition, 17-19 May 2004 Page(s): 91-96. Although this is similar toViolla-Jones each of the classifiers in a cascade generates a cumulativeprobability and faces are not rejected if they fail a single stage ofthe classifier. We remark that there are advantages in combining bothtypes of classifier (i.e. Violla-Jones and modified census) within asingle cascaded detector.

FIG. 1 illustrates what is described by Jones and Viola. For an analysisof an acquired image 12, the detection window 10 is shiftedincrementally by dx pixels across and dx pixels down until the entireimage has been searched for faces 14. The rows of dots 16 (not allshown) represent the position of the top-left corner of the detectionwindow 10 at each face detection position. At each of these positions,the classifier chain is applied to detect the presence of a face.

Referring to FIGS. 2 a and 2 b, as well as investigating the currentposition, neighboring positions can also be examined, by performingsmall oscillations around the current detection window and/or varyingslightly a scale of the detection window. Such oscillations may vary indegree and in size creating consecutive windows with some degree ofoverlap between an original window and a second window. The variationmay also be in the size of the second window.

A search may be performed in a linear fashion with the dx, dy incrementsbeing a predetermined function of image resolution and detection windowsize. Thus, the detection window may be moved across the image withconstant increments in x and y directions.

A problem with linear searching occurs when the window size decreases,such when attempting to detect small faces, and the number of slidingwindows that are to be as analyzed increases quadratically to thereduction in window size. This results in a compounded slow executiontime, making “fast” face detection otherwise unsuitable for real-timeembedded implementations.

U.S. application Ser. No. 11/464,083, filed Aug. 11, 2006, which isassigned to the same assignee as the present application, disclosesimprovements to algorithms such as those described by Jones and Viola,and in particular in generating a precise resolution corresponding to arepresentation of an image, such as an integral image or a Gaussianimage, for subsequent face detection.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A method of detecting a face in an image includes performing facedetection within a first window of the image at a first location. Aconfidence level is obtained from the face detection indicating aprobability of the image including a face at or in the vicinity of thefirst location. Face detection is performed within a second window at asecond location that is determined based on the confidence level.

A number of windows that are analyzed is advantageously significantlyreduced for a same face detection quality, and so faster face searchingis provided, even in the case of small faces, therefore allowingacceptable performance for face detection in real-time embeddedimplementations such as in digital cameras, mobile phones, digital videocameras and hand held computers.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments will now be described, by way of example, with reference tothe accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates schematically an image being processed by aconventional face detection process;

FIG. 2( a) illustrates a detection window oscillating diagonally aroundan initial position;

FIG. 2( b) illustrates a smaller scale detection window oscillatingtransversely around the initial position;

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of a method of face searching and detectionaccording to a preferred embodiment;

FIG. 4 illustrates schematically an image being processed according to apreferred embodiment; and

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating post-processing of a detected faceregion prior to face recognition.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

An improved method of face searching and detection in a digital imageacquisition device is described that calculates x and/or y increments ofa detection window in an adaptive fashion.

In face detection processes, during analysis of a detection windowand/or while oscillating around the detection window, a confidence levelcan be accumulated providing a probabilistic measure of a face beingpresent at the location of the detection window. When the confidencelevel reaches a preset threshold for a detection window, a face isconfirmed for location of the detection window.

Where a face detection process generates such a confidence level for agiven location of detection window, in a preferred embodiment, theconfidence level is captured and stored as an indicator of theprobability of a face existing at the given location. Such probabilitymay reflect confidence that a face has been detected, or confidence thatthere is no face detected in the window.

Alternatively, where a face detection process applies a sequence oftests each of which produce a Boolean “Face” or “No face” result, theextent to which the face detection process has progressed through thesequence before deciding that no face exists at the location can betaken as equivalent to a confidence level and indicating the probabilityof a face existing at the given location. For example, where a cascadeof classifiers fails to detect a face at a window location at classifier20 of 32, it could be taken that this location is more likely to includea face (possibly at a different scale or shifted slightly) than where acascade of classifiers failed to detect a face at a window location atclassifier 10 of 32.

Referring now to FIG. 3, face searching and detection according to oneembodiment, begins by selecting the largest size of detection window atstep 30 and positioning the window at the top left corner of an image atstep 32.

Alternatively, if particular regions of an image have been identifiedthrough some pre-processing as being more likely to include a face, thedetection window can be located at a suitable corner of one such regionand the embodiment can be applied to each such region of the image inturn or in parallel. Examples of such pre-processing include identifyingregions of the image which include skin as being candidate face regions.

In this regard, it is possible to create a skin map for an acquiredimage where the value of a pixel within the skin map is determined byits probability of being a skin pixel.

There are many possible techniques for providing a skin map, forexample:

(i) “Comparison of Five Color Models in Skin Pixel Classification”,Zarit et al presented at ICCV '99 International Workshop of Recognition,Analysis, and Tracking of Faces and Gestures in Real-Time Systems,contains many references to tests for skin pixels;

(ii) U.S. Pat. No. 4,203,671, Takahashi et al., discloses a method ofdetecting skin color in an image by identifying pixels falling into anellipsoid in red, green, blue color space or within an ellipse in twodimensional color space;

(iii) U.S. Pat. No. 7,103,215 describes a method of detectingpornographic images, wherein a color reference database is prepared inLAB color space defining a plurality of colors representing relevantportions of a human body. A questionable image is selected, and sampledpixels are compared with the color reference database. Areas having amatching pixel are subjected to a texture analysis to determine if thepixel is an isolated color or if other comparable pixels surround it; acondition indicating possible skin;

(iv) U.S. Ser. No. 11/624,683 filed Jan. 18, 2007 (Ref: FN185) disclosesreal-valued skin tests for images in RGB and YCC formats. So, forexample, where image information is available in RGB format, theprobability of a pixel being skin is a function of the degree to which Lexceeds 240, where L=0.3*R+0.59G+0.11B, and/or the degree to which Rexceeds G+K and R exceeds B+K where K is a function of image saturation.In YCC format, the probability of a pixel being skin is a function ofthe degree to which Y exceeds 240, and/or the degree to which Cr exceeds148.8162−0.1626*Cb+0.4726*K and Cr exceeds 1.2639*Cb−33.7803+0.7133*K,where K is a function of image saturation.

It will also be understood that many different techniques exist toprovide a binary skin/not-skin classification (typically based on simplethresholding). So, it can be understood that some pixels may qualify asskin under one binary technique and as not-skin under a secondtechnique. So in alternative implementations, several binary techniquescan be combined, so that pixels may be ranked according to a number ofcriteria to obtain a relative probability that any particular pixel isskin. It is advantageous to weight different skin detection techniquesaccording to image capture conditions, or according to data analyzedfrom previous image frames.

Where multiple skin classification techniques are implemented in aparallel hardware architecture it becomes possible to combine to outputsof multiple skin classification techniques architecture it becomespossible to combine the outputs of multiple skin classificationtechniques become available from the imaging sensor. In one preferredembodiment this refined skin probability is represented as a grayscalevalue, 2^(N) where N>1 (N=1 represents a simple binary mask ofskin/not-skin). In any case, once an image pixel is classified by anon-binary algorithm it may be considered as a grayscale representationof skin probability.

In assessing whether various sizes and locations of windows in an imagemight include portions of skin, it can be advantageous to use theintegral image techniques disclosed in US 2002/0102024, Violla-Joneswith the skin map probability values produced for an image.

In such an integral image, each element is calculated as the sum ofintensities i.e. skin probabilities of all points above and to the leftof the point in the image. The total intensity of any sub-window in animage can then be derived by subtracting the integral image value forthe top left point of the sub-window from the integral image value forthe bottom right point of the sub-window. Also intensities for adjacentsub-windows can be efficiently compared using particular combinations ofintegral image values from points of the sub-windows.

Thus the techniques employed to construct an integral image fordetermining the luminance of a rectangular portion of the final imagemay equally be employed to create a skin probability integral image.Once this integral image skin map (IISM) is created, it enables the skinprobability of any rectangular area within the image to be quicklydetermined by simple arithmetic operations involving the four cornerpoints of the rectangle, rather than having to average skin values overthe full rectangle.

In the context of a fast face detector as described in the remainder ofthis specification, it can be understood that obtaining a rapidcalculation of the averaged local skin pixel probability within asub-window enables the skin probability to be advantageously employedeither to confirm a local face region, or to be used as an additional,color sensitive classifier to supplement conventional luminance basedHaar or census classifiers.

Alternatively or in combination with detection of skin regions, wherethe acquired image is one of a stream of images being analyzed, thecandidate face regions might be face regions detected in previousframes, such as may be disclosed at U.S. application Ser. No.11/464,083, (Ref: FN143) filed Aug. 11, 2006.

FIG. 2 a illustrates the detection window oscillating diagonally aroundan initial position (outlined in bold). FIG. 2 b illustrates a smallerscale detection window oscillating transversely around the initialposition before further face detection is performed. These oscillationsdox,doy and scale changes ds are typically smaller that the dx,dy stepof the detection window. A decision as to scale of oscillation dependson results of applying the search algorithm on the initial window.Typically, a range of about 10-12 different sizes of detection windowmay be used to cover the possible face sizes in an XVGA size image.

Returning to the operation of the main face detector, we note that facedetection is applied for the detection window at step 34, and thisreturns a confidence level for the detection window. The particularmanner in which the detection window oscillates around a particularlocation and the calculation of the confidence level in the preferredembodiment is as follows:

Once a given detection window location has been tested for the presenceof a face, the window is sequentially shifted by −dox,−doy; +dox,−doy;+dox,+doy; and −dox,−doy (as shown in FIG. 2( a)) and tested at each ofthese four locations. The confidence level for the window location andfour shifted locations is accumulated. The confidence level may then beported to each new window based on the new window size and location. Ifa target face-validation confidence threshold is not reached, thedetection window is shrunk (indicated by ds). This smaller detectionwindow is tested, then sequentially shifted by −dox,0; +dox,0; 0,+doy;and 0,−doy (as shown in FIG. 2( b)) and tested at each of these fourlocations. The confidence level for these five locations of the smallerscale detection window is added to the previous confidence level fromthe larger scale window.

The confidence level for the detection window location is recorded atstep 36.

If the detection window has not traversed the entire image/region to besearched at step 38, it is advanced as a function of the confidencelevel stored for the location at step 40.

In the preferred embodiment, where the confidence level for animmediately previous detection window at the present window size hasexceeded a threshold, then the x and y increment for the detectionwindow is decreased.

Referring now to FIG. 4, which shows how in the preferred embodiment,the shift step is adjusted when the confidence level for a locationsignals the probability of a face in the vicinity of the location. Forthe first four rows of searching, a relatively large increment isemployed in both x and y directions for the detection window. For thelocation of detection window 10(a), however, it is more than likely thatthe oscillation of the window in the bottom-right direction will providethe required confidence level of the face 14 being at the location. Assuch, the increment for the detection window in the x and y directionsis decreased. In the example, the confidence level will remain above thedetermined threshold until the detection window location passes to theright of the line t12. At this time, the x increment reverts to theoriginal large increment. Having incremented by the small increment inthe y direction, the detection window is advanced on the next row with alarge x increment until it reaches the line t11. Either because theconfidence level for this location will again exceed the requiredthreshold or indeed because it did for the previous row, the x incrementis again decreased until again the detection window passes to the rightof the line t12. This process continues until the detection windowarrives at location 10(b). Here, not alone is the confidence level forincreased resolution face detection reached, but the face 14 isdetected. In the preferred embodiment, this causes both the x and yincrements to revert to original large increments.

If a face is not detected in a region following a confidence leveltriggering at a face-like (but not an actual face) position, the x and yincrements return to their original relaxed value, when over the wholeextent of a row, the confidence levels do not rise above the thresholdlevel. So for example, in the row after the detection window passeslocation 10(c), no detection window will produce a confidence levelabove the threshold and so after this row, the y increment would revertto its relaxed level, even if a face had not been detected at location10(b).

Once the image and/or its regions have been traversed by a detectionwindow of a given size, unless this has been the smallest detectionwindow at step 42 of FIG. 3, the next smallest detection window ischosen at step 30, and the image traversed again.

In certain embodiments, when the confidence level for an immediatelyprevious detection window at the present window size exceeds athreshold, a change in dx,dy for a detection window is triggered.However, this change could equally and/or additionally be a function ofor be triggered by the confidence level for a bigger detection window orwindows at or around the same location.

In certain embodiments, detection windows are applied from the largestto the smallest size and so it is assumed that a given location has beenchecked by a larger sized detection window before a given sizeddetection window, so indicating that if a face has not been detected forthe larger sized detection window, it is to be found near that locationwith a smaller sized detection window. Alternatively, it can indicatethat even if a face has been found at a given location for a largersized detection window, there is a chance that the face might be moreaccurately bounded by a smaller sized detection window around thatlocation when subsequently applied.

As many more windows may be employed when looking for smaller size facesthan larger faces, where confidence levels from larger detection windowsare used to drive the increments for smaller detection windows, thesavings made possible by embodiments of the present invention aregreater than if smaller detection windows were applied first.

In the embodiments described above, for a given detection window size,either a large or small x or y increment is employed depending onwhether or not a face is likely to be in the vicinity of a detectionwindow location. However, the increment can be varied in any suitableway. So for example, the increment could be made inversely proportionalto the confidence level of previous detection windows applied in theregion.

Alternatively, instead of returning a quasi-continuous value asdescribed above, the confidence level returned by the face detectionprocess 34 could be discretely-valued indicating either: (i) no face;(ii) possible face; or (iii) face, each causing the advance step 40 toact as set out in relation to FIG. 4.

The detection window does not have to move along a row. Instead, itsprogress in each of the x and y directions may be adjusted from oneincrement to the next as a function of the confidence level of previousdetection windows applied in the region.

The embodiments described above can be implemented in a digital imageprocessing device such a digital stills camera, a digital video camera,camera phone or the like. The embodiments due to their computationalefficiency can be implemented within a real-time face detection functionwhich for example enables the device to highlight with a respectiveboundary (corresponding to a detection window) in a viewfinder facesdetected in an acquired image or image stream.

Alternatively or in addition, the embodiments can be implemented withinan off-line face detection function either within a digital imageprocessing device or in a connected computing device to which an imageis transferred or which has access to the image, to provide moreefficient face detection.

Alternatively or in addition, the detected face regions can be employedwith image post-processing functions such as red-eye detection and/orcorrection, or for example face expression detection and/or correction,or face recognition.

Where the detected face regions are employed in facial recognition, asmany facial recognition systems remain sensitive to slight variations ineither facial rotation or size, it is advantageous to applypost-processing measures in order to optimize the accuracy of facialrecognition. This is because, even where frontal face regions aredetected and saved, these regions may not be optimally aligned or scaledfor the purposes of face recognition. Also, it should be noted that manyimages captured are consumer images and that subjects in such imageswill rarely maintain their faces in a squarely facing frontal positionat the time of image acquisition.

Where as in the embodiment above, the face detection employed is highlyoptimized for speed and for the accurate determination of the presenceof a face region, face detection is typically not optimized toaccurately match the precise scale, rotation or pose of a detected faceregion.

There are many techniques known in the prior art for achieving suchnormalization, however, in an embedded imaging device, such as a digitalcamera, where processing must be both compact in terms of code footprintand efficient resource usage, it can be impractical to deploy more ofsuch complex processing.

Thus, in one embodiment the face detector, already available within theimage acquisition device, can be re-purposed for use in post-processingof detected/tracked face regions. In the embodiment, a supplementaryfrontal face detector which is generally identical to a standarddetector, but highly optimized at the training stage to detect onlyfrontal faces is employed. So for example, the frontal face detectorwould not be suitable for normal face detection/tracking where a morerelaxed detector, hereafter referred to as a standard detector isrequired.

Referring now to FIG. 5, in this embodiment, if a face region to whichface recognition is to be applied is originally detected, step 50, withan initial probability less than a 1^(st) threshold, the region isexpanded by say, X=20% to include a surrounding peripheral region andextracted from the acquired image, step 52. This larger region istypically sufficient to contain the entire face.

A standard detector is next applied to the expanded region, step 54, butacross a smaller range of maximum and minimum scales, and at finergranular resolution than would be employed across a full image.

As an example, at step 54, the detector might scale from 1.1 to 0.9times the size of the face region determined by the original detectionprocess, step 50, but in increments of 0.025; thus 0.9, 0.925, 0.95,0.975, 1.00, and so on, and similarly with step size. The goal is todetermine a sub-window optimized in scale and alignment within theextracted, expanded face region where the face probability is highest.Ideally, such a sub-window will exceed a 2^(nd) threshold probabilityfor face detection no less than the 1^(st) threshold. If not, and ifrotation is not to be applied in an attempt to improve this probability,then this face region is marked as “unreliable” for recognition, step56.

Where the first or second thresholds are exceeded then either thesub-window for the originally detected face region or the optimizedwindow from step 54 are expanded by say Y=10%<X, step 58.

The frontal face detector is then applied to the expanded region, step60. If a sub-window with a face detection probability above a thirdthreshold (higher than each of the first and second thresholds isidentified), step 62, then that sub-window is marked as “reliable” andis passed on to a recognition process, step 64.

Where the frontal face detection step fails at step 62, but we knowthere is a high probability face region, then it is likely that one orboth of a small rotational or pose normalization is also required toproduce a face region suitable for face recognition.

In one embodiment, the original X % expanded face region is next rotatedthrough one of a number of angular displacements, say −0.2, −0.15, −0.1,−0.05, 0.0, +0.05, +0.1, +0.15 and +0.2 radians, step 66, and the finegrained standard face detection and possibly frontal face detectionsteps are re-applied as before.

Ideally, the face probability will increase above the required 3^(rd)threshold as these angular rotations are applied to the extracted faceregion and the face region can be marked as “reliable”. It will also beseen that the potentially changing probabilities from face regionrotation can also be used to guide the direction of rotation of theregion. For example, if a rotation of −0.05 radians increases the facedetection probability but not sufficiently, then the next rotationchosen would be −0.1 radians. Whereas if a rotation of −0.05 radiansdecreases the face detection probability, then the next rotation chosenwould be 0.05 radians and if this did not increase the face detectionprobability, then the face region could be marked as “unreliable” forrecognition, step 56

As an alternative or in addition to this in-plane rotation of the faceregion, an AAM (Active Appearance Model) or equivalent module can beapplied to the detected face region in an attempt to provide therequired pose normalization to make the face region suitable for facerecognition. AAM modules are well known and a suitable module for thepresent embodiment is disclosed in “Fast and Reliable Active AppearanceModel Search for 3-D Face Tracking”, F Dornaika and J Ahlberg, IEEETransactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics-Part B: Cybernetics, Vol34, No. 4, pg 1838-1853, August 2004, although other models based on theoriginal paper by TF Cootes et al “Active Appearance Models” Proc.European Conf. Computer Vision, 1998, pp 484-498 could also be employed.

In this embodiment, the AAM model has two parameters trained forhorizontal and vertical pose adjustments, and the AAM model shouldconverge to the face within the detected face region indicating theapproximate horizontal and vertical pose of the face. The face regionmay then be adjusted by superimposing the equivalent AAM model toprovide a “straightened” face region rotated out of the plane of theimage, step 68.

Again, fine grained standard face detection and frontal face detectionsteps are re-applied, and if the threshold for the detected faceregion(s) is not above the required probability, then small incrementaladjustments of the horizontal and vertical pose may be stepped throughas before until either the frontal face detector probability increasessufficiently to mark the face region as “reliable” or the face region isconfirmed to be “unreliable” to use for face recognition purposes.

U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/752,925 filed May 24, 2007 (Ref:FN172) describes capturing face regions from a preview stream andsubsequently aligning and combining these images using super-resolutiontechniques in order to provide a repair template for portions of afacial region in a main acquired image. These techniques may beadvantageously employed, in addition to or as an alternative to thesteps above, independently or as part of a post-processing step on aface region in order to bring the face region into a substantiallyfrontal alignment before face recognition.

In other alternative applications for detected face regions, theselected regions may be consecutively applied to a series of images suchas preview images, post-view images or a video stream of full- orreduced-resolution images, or combinations thereof, where the confidencelevel as well as the window locations are passed from one preview image,post-view image, etc., to the next.

While an exemplary drawings and specific embodiments of the presentinvention have 10 been described and illustrated, it is to be understoodthat that the scope of the present invention is not to be limited to theparticular embodiments discussed.

In addition, in methods that may be performed according to preferredembodiments herein and that may have been described above, theoperations have been described in selected typographical sequences.However, the sequences have been selected and so ordered fortypographical convenience and are not intended to imply any particularorder for performing the operations, except for those where a particularorder may be expressly set forth or where those of ordinary skill in theart may deem a particular order to be necessary.

What is claimed is:
 1. A device, comprising: an image acquiring unitcommunicatively coupled to a memory unit, and configured to acquire dataof a digital image that depicts one or more objects; and a facedetection unit configured to: perform face detection within a firstrelatively large window of said image at a first location; obtain fromsaid face detection a confidence level that is below a thresholdindicating a probability that no face is present at or in a vicinity ofsaid first location; perform second face detection within a secondrelatively large window of said image at a second location displacedfrom the first location by a first x-amount in a first direction and/orby a first y-amount in an orthogonal second direction; obtain from saidsecond face detection a confidence level that is at or above saidthreshold indicating a probability that the image at least may include aface in the vicinity of the second location; apply a sequence ofwindows, including relatively smaller windows than said secondrelatively large window, at further locations in the vicinity of saidsecond location, including a third location that is displaced from thesecond location by a second x-amount that is smaller than the firstx-amount in the first direction and/or by a second y-amount that issmaller than the first y-amount in the orthogonal second directionwherein a magnitude of displacement by respective values of x-amount ina first direction and/or by respective values of y-amount in anorthogonal second direction is variable between successive windows ofsaid sequence of windows within said image and wherein said x-amountand/or said y-amount decreases between successive windows when aconfidence level indicating that the image at least may include a faceincreases across one or more further thresholds; and repeat theobtaining of confidence levels until face detection for multiplepredetermined sizes of windows has been performed over an entire regionof interest of said image.
 2. The device of claim 1, wherein the facedetection unit is further configured to: repeat the obtaining ofconfidence levels below the threshold for multiple additional windows indifferent locations indicating probabilities in each case that no faceis present at the different locations before said performing said secondface detection.
 3. The device of claim 1, wherein the face detectionunit is further configured to: repeat the obtaining of confidence levelsfor multiple additional windows in different locations until facedetection has been performed over an entire region of interest.
 4. Thedevice of claim 3, wherein dimensions of said one or more additionalwindows depend on said confidence level.
 5. The device of claim 1,wherein the face detection unit is further configured to: determine aset of regions of interest for said image, and repeat the obtaining ofconfidence levels for each of all said regions of interest of said set.6. The device of claim 1, wherein the face detection unit is furtherconfigured to: identify at least one region of said image likely tocontain a face; and repeat the obtaining of confidence levels until facedetection is performed over substantially an entirety of said at leastone region.
 7. The device of claim 1, wherein the face detection unit isfurther configured to: identify at least one region of said image likelyto contain a face; and repeat the obtaining of confidence levels untilface detection is performed concentrically inside said at least oneregion.
 8. The device of claim 1, wherein the face detection unit isfurther configured to: apply a chain of classifiers to said windows ofsaid image and wherein said confidence level comprises a function of anumber of classifiers successfully applied to said windows.
 9. Thedevice of claim 1, wherein the first relatively large window of saidimage at a first location includes a portion that does not overlap thesecond window.
 10. The device of claim 1, wherein a size of the firstwindow is decreased based on a confidence level of said face detection.11. The device of claim 1, wherein the magnitude of the second x-amountor the magnitude of the second y-amount, or both, are greater than therespective magnitudes of the first x-amount or the second y-amount, orboth, for a higher confidence level that the image does not include aface at the first location compared with the second location.
 12. Thedevice of claim 1, wherein an x-amount displacement magnitude and any-amount displacement magnitude between at least two successivelocations depend separately on face detection confidence levels in afirst orthogonal direction and a second orthogonal direction,respectively.
 13. The device of claim 1, wherein the confidence level isabove a threshold value that a face is detected in the vicinity of saidfirst location.
 14. The device of claim 1, wherein the face detectionunit is further configured to: pre-determine one or more regions ofinterest within the image each as having an enhanced likelihood ofincluding a face, locate a detection window at a suitable corner of eachsuch region of interest, apply to each such region of interest asequence of windows, by applying at said suitable corner a facedetection window of relatively larger size than a subsequent facedetection window that is applied upon moving a first displacementmagnitude amount to a subsequent location upon obtaining a confidencelevel above at least one of said further thresholds for face detectionat the previous location, and displace a smaller magnitude ofdisplacement distance from the previous location to the subsequentlocation when a level of confidence that a face may exist at theprevious location exceeds said at least one of said further thresholds.15. The device of claim 1, wherein the face detection unit is furtherconfigured to: apply said sequence of windows to two or more regions ofinterest in time periods with at least some temporal overlap.
 16. Thedevice of claim 1, wherein said one or more regions of interest compriseone or more regions including a number of skin pixels.
 17. The device ofclaim 1, wherein said image comprises is-an image in a stream of imagesand wherein said regions of interest comprise one or more regions inwhich a face has been detected in a previous image of said stream. 18.The device of claim 1, wherein the face detection unit is furtherconfigured to: responsive to said confidence level indicating a face ator in the vicinity of said first location, perform detection of afrontally aligned face within the first relatively large window.
 19. Thedevice of claim 1, wherein the face detection unit is further configuredto: responsive to detection of a frontally aligned face in any candidateregion, selectively apply face recognition to said candidate region. 20.The device of claim 1, wherein the face detection unit is furtherconfigured to: apply face recognition in response to any candidateregion having a probability of including a face greater than apredetermined threshold.
 21. The device of claim 20, wherein saidperforming detection is performed in a candidate region including saidface detected at or in the vicinity of said first location.
 22. Thedevice of claim 1, wherein said performing detection is performed inresponse to a candidate region having a probability of including a facegreater than a first threshold.
 23. The device of claim 1, wherein theface detection unit is further configured to: responsive to said firstlocation having a probability of including a face less than a firstthreshold, extract an extended region including said first location fromsaid image and perform face detection in said extended region with arelatively fine granularity to provide a candidate region.
 24. Thedevice of claim 1, wherein the face detection unit is further configuredto: responsive to a candidate region having a probability of including aface less than a second threshold, rotate an extended region including aface region through one of a sequence of angles and perform facedetection in said rotated extended region with a relatively finegranularity to provide another candidate region.
 25. The device of claim1, wherein the face detection unit is further configured to: responsiveto a candidate region having a probability of including a face less thana second threshold, rotate said face within an extended region throughone of a sequence of angles and perform face detection in said extendedregion with a relatively fine granularity to provide another candidateregion.
 26. A method for improving face searching and detection in adigital image acquisition device, the method comprising: acquiring,using an image acquiring unit communicatively coupled to a memory unit,data of a digital image that depicts one or more objects; using a facedetection unit performing: performing face detection within a firstrelatively large window of said image at a first location; obtainingfrom said face detection a confidence level that is below a thresholdindicating a probability that no face is present at or in a vicinity ofsaid first location; performing second face detection within a secondrelatively large window of said image at a second location displacedfrom the first location by a first x-amount in a first direction and/orby a first y-amount in an orthogonal second direction; obtaining fromsaid second face detection a confidence level that is at or above saidthreshold indicating a probability that the image at least may include aface in the vicinity of the second location; applying a sequence ofwindows, including relatively smaller windows than said secondrelatively large window, at further locations in the vicinity of saidsecond location, including a third location that is displaced from thesecond location by a second x-amount that is smaller than the firstx-amount in the first direction and/or by a second y-amount that issmaller than the first y-amount in the orthogonal second directionwherein a magnitude of displacement by respective values of x-amount ina first direction and/or by respective values of y-amount in anorthogonal second direction is variable between successive windows ofsaid sequence of windows within said image and wherein said x-amountand/or said y-amount decreases between successive windows when aconfidence level indicating that the image at least may include a faceincreases across one or more further thresholds; and repeating theobtaining of confidence levels until face detection for multiplepredetermined sizes of windows has been performed over an entire regionof interest of said image.
 27. The method of claim 26, furthercomprising: repeating the obtaining of confidence levels below thethreshold for multiple additional windows in different locationsindicating probabilities in each case that no face is present at thedifferent locations before said performing said second face detection.28. The method of claim 26, further comprising: repeating the obtainingof confidence levels for multiple additional windows in differentlocations until face detection has been performed over an entire regionof interest.
 29. The method of claim 28, wherein dimensions of said oneor more additional windows depend on said confidence level.
 30. Themethod of claim 26, further comprising: determining a set of regions ofinterest for said image, and repeating the obtaining of confidencelevels for each of all said regions of interest of said set.